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Monday, 27 April 2020

The Prince and the Pawn, the epic finale of When Rivals Play from bestselling author B.B. Reid is LIVE!

They were wrong for each other from the start.

The jock and the nerd, what a cliché they made.

He was the town prince, and she was a nobody.

Tyra Bradley was invisible.

That is until she told him he needed some manners, and so began their game of cat and mouse.

She ran, he chased.

It was perfect.

Except Vaughn Rees has a deep, dark secret. Promised to the NFL, but fated for something sinister, Vaughn knows she’s forbidden fruit. To want more is to tempt death. He’s already in too deep.

When a betrayal unravels their fragile ties, the good girl runs as fast as she can. What Tyra doesn’t know? They’re a siren’s song. She can run, but they’ll always be bound.

They’re two souls torn apart and mended by fate. And now…Vaughn isn’t the only one with a secret.

Review:

I received this ARC for an honest review

I gave this book 4.5 stars. I love this series so much and it was so bittersweet to see it end.

I loved being able to see all of the characters together. That’s one of my favourite things in books, I love just seeing friends hanging out and doing things together.

I was so pumped from the beginning to read about Tyra and Vaughn. When I found out that these two originally were not supposed to be together, I panicked a little. I couldn’t imagine these two not ending up together. I was thrilled to find out that they did, in fact, end up together.

The fact that we knew what was going to happen to them from the ending of the last book really enhanced the beginning of this book. Spoiler if you haven’t read the last book, but we find out that Vaughn cheated on Tyra and that they broke up. Now this book starts off with the confrontation but then jumps back in time to show us everything leading up. Every chapter between those two points was just tugging at those heartstrings, not knowing what was going to happen between them. Despite all the good that happened you just know that it’s all going to come crashing down.

Reading the beginning and knowing that something serious was going to go down made me a little more reluctant to get into it, not gonna lie. It was good don't get me wrong, I just find it really hard to deal with when characters get cheated on. I read the first half of this book at a snails pace. I had no such issues with the second half of the book. Things picked right up and started going in a direction that didn't make me nearly as nervous as the first half. I loved how everything came to a close that made sense. There was no bizarre twist that didn't actually make any sense. This ending made sense.

Everything up to that point was no surprise but it was everything after that point that was completely unknown to us. But spoilers so I won’t actually discuss those.

I was pretty satisfied with how things ended. Would read again.

Also just a side note but I also really enjoyed that little dynamic between Thomas, Sean, and Evelyn. Also, would read again.

Each novel depicts a different and completely unique romance. However, the stories and their plots are connected. It’s recommended that you read them in order for the full reading experience beginning with The Peer and the Puppet then The Moth and The Flame.

About B.B. Reid:B.B. Reid is a bestselling author of new adult romance. She grew up the only daughter and middle child in a small town in North Carolina. After graduating with a Bachelors in Finance, she started her career at an investment research firm while continuing to serve in the National Guard. She currently resides in Charlotte with her moody cat and enjoys collecting Chuck Taylors and binge-eating chocolate.Please visit her website for more information: www.bbreid.com

Each novel depicts a different and completely unique romance. However, the stories and their plots are connected. It’s recommended that you read them in order for the full reading experience beginning with The Peer and the Puppet then The Moth and The Flame.

Content suitable for ages 18+.

Read The Peer and the Puppet today!

On sale for 99c for a limited time or FREE to read with Kindle Unlimited.

About B.B. Reid:
B.B. Reid is a bestselling author of new adult romance. She grew up the only daughter and middle child in a small town in North Carolina. After graduating with a Bachelors in Finance, she started her career at an investment research firm while continuing to serve in the National Guard. She currently resides in Charlotte with her moody cat and enjoys collecting Chuck Taylors and binge-eating chocolate.Please visit her website for more information: www.bbreid.com

Wednesday, 1 April 2020

Things have been kind of shitty lately worldwide and honestly we could use some cheering up. I thought I would talk about some things that I've been really loving lately whether they are books or other things. Also, I'd like to make it learn before I start the list that no, I have not seen Tiger King yet.Journaling

I recently started keeping a journal again. I don't think I've ever talked about this before on here, but I kept a journal from the sixth grade till the twelfth grade at which point I felt like I didn't have much to write about and just had no time to do so. I just recently had a lot on my mind and I felt like it was so nice writing everything down. It's very therapeutic if you haven't tried it you should. It doesn't have to be good, it just has to help you get things off your chest.Doing my Makeup for Fun

Honestly, something else I love to do when I'm stressed is to just sit down and do my makeup. Do a full-on glam makeup look and chill for a bit. I hate that stereotype of people doing their makeup to impress other people. I can guarantee the only people seeing my makeup look is me and my family. I'm not going anywhere.Disney +

I've just been catching up on my favourite childhood shows from Disney and it's amazing that I can just sit down and watch the whole series if I want to. I watched the entirety of Wizards of Waverly Place last month and it was magical. Best Disney show ever IMO. I especially enjoy having this on while I'm doing my makeup.Decaf Coffee

Honestly, I used to only drink coffee if I needed to stay awake, but then I realized that I want to drink coffee at all times a day without having to worry about falling asleep at night. I find that it also really helps when I get migraines.

Dickinson

I love this stupid show so much. It's on Apple TV. You can get a 7-day free trial. There are only 10 episodes that are 20-30 minutes long. Trust me, it's worth it. The show itself is so hard to describe. The show follows a fictionalized version of Emily Dickinson's life, but mixed in is all this modern music and modern ideas in this 1800s setting. Plus each episode is based on one of her poems. It's so funny and has quickly become one of my favourite shows. It legit made me want to go out and buy a book of Emily Dickinson's poems.

Pretty Reckless by L. J. Shen

I'm honestly not the biggest fan of L. J. Shen's books. I've read four of them now and honestly, I could forget about most of them. Pretty Reckless, however, is a game-changer. I loved this book so much. I especially loved Daria, the protagonist. She upstages other people in their books. She's that bitch. I love her and I would love another book about her.

Chain of Gold

I got an ARC for this book which I was so excited about, but then I got really busy and it's been released already. Long story short, I still haven't finished this book. However, I'm around halfway and I'm loving it. There was one section from Tessa's point of view that was so short and bittersweet that I almost started crying. Wessa forever. I need to finish this book.What are some things that are making you guys feel happier lately? Also I hope everyone is staying safe!Feel free to add me on social media! And you can follow my blog in the sidebar to be notified when I post!Follow @Bookballistic0Follow

Tuesday, 4 February 2020

It's been a while since I've done a book tag and this one sounded fun. Enjoy.MY JAM: A song you must listen to every time it comes on, no matter how old or how many times you’ve listened to it / A book you’ll never get sick of.

Careless Whisper by George Michaels. I know every word to this song and every-time it comes on I have to sing it. No exceptions.

Harry Potter because it's Harry Potter. No brainer.

THROWBACK: A song that reminds you of the cringiest time of your life / A book that also reminds you of this time (or just something you wouldn’t like as much if you picked it up for the first time now).

Come and Get it by Selena Gomez

Who the hell did I think I was. Thirteen year old me thought I was hot shit.

Marked by P.C. and Kristen Cast. Oh boy, I used to actually think this series was a godsend. Now, I think it might be just as bad as Twilight. Maybe even worse. At least Twilight stopped at four books, The House of Night series just kept going.

REPLAY: A recent song you have on repeat right now / A recent favourite book.

Oh No! by Marina and the Diamonds

I’ve been sitting on Marina and the Diamonds for years and just this past year I listened to this song so much in the second half of the year that it became my second most listened to song according to Spotify. If you haven’t heard it yet I would highly recommend.

A Promise of Fire. This book wasn’t even that recent but I always find myself thinking about it. I read this entire series a couple of months ago so I guess it’s recent enough to count.

GETS ME: This Song is Me / This Book is Me in book form.

Hunger by Florence + the Machine. Man I don’t even know what to say for this one other than you should listen to it and you might feel the same way that I do.

This is getting so existential. I’m just going to go with Without Merit by Colleen Hoover because that’s the latest one I can think of where I really felt connected to the protagonist and felt as if they got me on a soul deep level.

WUT: Weird but I liked it? / A unique book that stuck out to you for whatever reason.

Business Time by Flight of the Conchords

lol go listen to it. It’s on spotify.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. I don’t think I’ve ever read another book like it. Other than it’s prequel. It’s just, magical.

CHILL: Favourite chill, relaxing song / A book you’d curl up with and read on a rainy day.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow byIsrael Kamakawiwo’ole because I just think this is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my life.

I’ll Give You the Sun. You can never go wrong with I’ll Give You the Sun. It’s happy and sad but never too much.

Thursday, 16 January 2020

Colleen Hoover delivers a tour de force novel about a troubled marriage and the one old forgotten promise that might be able to save it.

Quinn and Graham’s perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.

All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

My Thoughts:

SPOILERS

I gave this book 2.5 stars. I feel like everyone is going to disagree with me on this one. I might even get a bit of hate for it because everyone on Goodreads seems to love this book. I don't know if I'm going to post this on there. Don't get me wrong, I love Colleen Hoover, she's one of my favourite authors, but this book was just a disappointment. I really loved all of the before chapters. The before chapters, for the most part, made me not hate the main characters as much as I would have if I had only read the after parts. I have some very strong feelings about this book. I’m going to go into some of these in detail.

Starting with Quinn. Quinn is one of the protagonists of this novel. She and her husband Graham have been having fertility issues for years and it’s taking its toll on their marriage. Now I get fertility issues are fucking hard for a couple. I get that. I also get why it was so hard for them to adopt a child since this book takes place in the U.S. and if you have anything on your criminal record you’re pretty much fucked. But the way that Quinn acted at times, had me not liking her, then really disliking her, then hating her. I get that Quinn was probably depressed because of her inability to have a baby, but she was just so manipulative. She wanted a baby so bad that she was just manipulative and cruel towards her husband at times. There were just so many instances where just being in her head while she was only thinking about having children while having sex with her husband instead of actually wanting to have sex that made me so incredibly uncomfortable. Being depressed is not an excuse to manipulate the people that love you. I'm sorry, but it's not. It's not okay.

I think I might have actually hated Graham more than Quinn. It all started when he got upset with Quinn because you know, she was being manipulative. But then he punched a wall or door or something because he was mad at her. What that says to me, when someone punches something when they are mad at you is that they really want to punch you. Red flag. Like I get that your wife is being kind of manipulative because she wants a baby more than she wants you, but punching doors or walls isn’t going to solve that. It’s also scary. I don’t think I’d want to be with him.

The next nail in the coffin was when Graham cheated on Quinn. The reason these two met in the first place was because their significant others were cheating on them with each other. So that makes the fact that Graham cheated that much worse. He knew how much it hurt when that happened and he knew how much that hurt Quinn but he did it anyway. I know he didn’t sleep with the other woman, but he still emotionally cheated on her and he still made out with this other woman several times. So many levels of fucked up.

Another thing that really pissed me off about Graham was just a little comment he made in the before portion of the book. Politics are a very tricky thing. Politics is something that a lot of people have very strong opinions about, myself included, so when they were talking about them I mostly agreed with what they said. What pissed me off was when Graham said that he believed that women should be allowed to get abortions if they want them, except for in the third trimester. Now bear with me, people who carry their children to the third term, planned on having the baby. The only reason someone would get an abortion in the third trimester is because of health reasons. Either the baby is not going to live or the mother is having health complications and she isn’t going to live if she keeps carrying that baby. No one just wakes up one day deciding that they don’t want the baby they’ve been carrying for all those months. And if for some reason they do, that’s infanticide. It’s already illegal. I could keep going, but I think at this point of said the most important things so I’m going to stop. This comment by Graham just made me resent him.

What I hated most was that these two didn’t communicate with each other. This book was like a “what not to do” in a marriage. They each had so many issues that they didn’t talk to each other about. This could have been avoided if they talked to each other.

I feel like after dumping on this book so much I should talk about what I did enjoy about this book. I love Colleen Hoover’s sense of humour. When this book wasn’t depressing it was hilarious. I loved the story of how Quinn and Graham got together in the first place. It was just so heartwarming. And despite all the shit I hated in the middle, I felt like the ending was perfect. It was just such a simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming moment when reading their letters to each other. And coming to terms with their marriage and the fact that they would probably never have their own biological children, but being okay with it. I know some people want to have children are unable to. I understand it’s hard but I also appreciate that this book spread the message that having children is not the end all be all of your existence. Being able to have children is not what determines your self-worth. I also liked the point it put across about NOT FUCKING ASKING PEOPLE WHEN THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE A KID! DON’T DO IT!

I sat on this book for a few weeks, not thinking I was going to actually write a review for it. It got to the point where I knew if I didn’t write a review it was going to drive me crazy. I keep thinking about it and why it annoys me. Hopefully, now my thoughts will move on to other things.

About Me

My name's Jessie. I'm currently a university student who decided to start this blog 5 years ago. I love books so I wanted to have someplace where I could speak freely about them. Since I don't have many people to talk to about books, I started a blog. I would have made a booktube channel, but my social anxiety keeps me from doing that. I feel much safer writing reviews from behind my keyboard like any other internet troll. With slightly less trolling. (Also that's a picture of me with my friends cat on my shoulders. Isn't he the cutest?).